ICYMI: Sean Patrick Maloney used taxpayer funds to hire his husband’s personal trainer as part-time employee
Sean Patrick Maloney was caught – yet again – misusing taxpayer funds in his congressional office.
The Daily Mail reports Maloney used campaign and official funds to hire his husband’s personal trainer as a part-time employee, paying him thousands of taxpayer dollars.
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EXCLUSIVE: Top Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney used campaign and taxpayer funds to pay his husband’s personal trainer to work as a part-time driver
Daily Mail
Morgan Phillips
October 3, 2022
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney curiously paid his husband’s personal trainer as a ‘part time employee’ through both taxpayer funds and campaign funds.
Erick Ramos was paid $2,608.66 by the New York Democrat and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chair’s office from April-May 2021 and listed as a ‘part time employee.’
Between March 2021 and October 2021, Ramos was paid $4,396 from Maloney’s campaign funds. At the same time, Maloney’s husband Randy Florke posted several videos to Instagram and tagged Ramos and referred to him as Florke and Maloney’s ‘personal trainer.’
Ramos, in his Instagram bio, described himself as a ‘personal trainer’ and ‘natural athlete.’ Maloney’s office said that Ramos was paid as a driver.
His Facebook page says that he has been employed as a chief security officer at John Hardy since 2018.
The office said the congressman’s regular driver, who is also listed as a ‘part-time employee,’ went on paternity leave and Ramos was brought to fill in for him.
In a call set up by the office DailyMail.com confirmed with the congressman’s usual driver that he took paternity leave between March and May 2021 and took time off again in September-October 2021.
On May 13, 2021, Florke posted a workout video and tagged Ramos, whose handle is 3rick_ramos1993.
Responding to a comment on his post, Florke responded to a comment saying he was at his home gym and telling the follower they ‘should hire my trainer. He’s amazing. @3rick_ramos.’
On March 24, 2021 Florke posted a workout video of himself and Maloney, and again tagged Ramos. On June 24, 2021 Florke posted a photo of shirtless photo of himself and captioned it: ‘Hiked Mt. Beacon with my trainer @3rick_ramos1993 this morning instead of our normal workout.’
On three other occasions throughout June and July, Florke posted workout content to social media and tagged Ramos.
Maloney’s office claimed Ramos was paid taxpayer money ‘exclusively’ for driving duties and to question the payments was ‘blatant homophobia.’
‘Congratulations to the Daily Mail for their shocking discovery that Rep. Maloney and his husband work out! Beyond that, there is nothing to this piece besides blatant homophobia and yet another baseless attack on a person of color who worked for Rep. Maloney,’ Maloney’s communications director Mia Ehrenberg said in a statement.
The driver who went on paternity leave is black.
‘Rep. Maloney’s driver had a baby and needed to take leave. During that period, Mr. Ramos briefly filled in as driver and was paid exclusively for that role.’
The Maloney campaign had a similar story.
‘Mr. Ramos filled in as driver from late March 2021 to May 2021 when the current driver was on leave. He also filled in as driver on a few occasions in fall of 2021 as-needed,’ a spokesperson said.
Florke and Maloney have been together since 1992 and have three adopted children. Florke works as an interior decorator in Cold Spring, New York. Maloney has served in Congress since 2013.
Maloney is running against Republican state lawmaker Mike Lawler in November in a competitive district that Cook Political Report rates as ‘leans Democratic.’
Lawler’s campaign criticized the ‘unusual financial arrangement’ in a statement to DailyMail.com.
‘The Erick Ramos controversy stinks to high heaven, but Sean Maloney seems to think that ethics rules don’t apply to him,’ campaign spokesperson Bill O’Reilly said. ‘That’s what happens when you’ve been a Washington-insider for too long. The more Mr. Maloney tries to run from this, the more questions arise.’
The DCCC could not be reached for comment.
Maloney made waves in the Democratic Party earlier this year when after a new redistricting map was released he announced he would run in the new district he lives in despite it heavily overlapping with Rep. Mondaire Jones’ district, prompting Jones to run in New York City.
Complaints arose across the nation about Maloney over the DCCC’s choice to elevate far-right candidates in Republican candidates who they believed they would have an easier time beating in general elections.
This is not the first time Maloney’s staffing choices have brought questions as to whether he used campaign funds for personal use. In July the New York Post reported on Harold Leath, Maloney’s former ‘body man’ or as Maloney’s office calls it, ‘executive assistant.’
‘I was pretty much with the congressman everywhere he went within the district — if he went to a meeting, if he went out running. I would drive him everywhere he needed to go,’ he told The Post.
‘When I first started, my main responsibility was to make sure the congressman and his family never needed anything,’ Leath recalled. ‘I was to be there.’
‘Everything I got paid for was either for his campaign, in the beginning, or doing something for him.’